Ritual Tension

Ritual Tension is an American experimental rock band that formed in 1983 in New York City. They have released three studio albums and an EP. During their first incarnation all records were recorded at Martin Bisi's BC Studio in Brooklyn, and a live album taken from shows at CBGB, before their initial dissolution in 1990. At the same time, various configurations of the band members took part in art performances around Manhattan at venues such as Pyramid Club and PS 122. They re-formed in 2018, began playing shows and released a new album entitled It's Just the Apocalypse, It's Not the End in 2020, and played live together in 2023 at the Downtown Music Gallery. Ritual Tension began with brothers Ivan and Andrew Nahem (sons of baseball player Sam Nahem). They had played together in a band they formed called Crop at San Francisco punk rock clubs in the late 1970s. Ivan had previously played drums in The Situations. Crop's lineup also included Mark C. and Tom Paine. Subsequently, Ivan Nahem, Paine and C. moved to New York City in 1980. Displeased with the direction of the band in the new location, Ivan left to form Carnival Crash with longtime friend John Griffin Morrissey and Norman Westberg (the latter had auditioned for Crop at C.'s loft), and later adding James Lo when Ivan switched from drums to vocals. Carnival Crash gigged around town and recorded an album's worth of material at Noise New York with Frank Eaton engineering. However they split up while recording in the studio and Ivan released a single, "Edge of Night" b/w "Tell Tale Heart", under the name Ivan X. Paine and C. subsequently formed Live Skull, while Westberg joined Swans. Andrew Nahem moved to New York City in 1981 and the brothers began rehearsing together in the East Village. The band, as Tension, made their live debut on May 5, 1983 at the Speed Trials music festival at White Columns. Reviews were positive for their 25-minute performance of "All Wound Up", performed with drum machine, guitar, effects and vocals. Tension also recorded "All Wound Up" at Noise New York. Claire Lawrence-Slater was added on bass and eventually Michael Jio on drums. They began playing East Village clubs, rehearsing in the Honeymoon Killers studio. Lawrence-Slater left the band, later playing with Honeymoon Killers and Ultra-Huge. She was replaced by Marc Sloan. In summer 1985, Ivan Nahem played drums during Swans recording sessions; the resulting tracks were later issued on that band's 1986 albums Greed and Holy Money. Now known as Ritual Tension, the band recorded their first album, I Live Here, at Martin Bisi's B.C. studio. It was released on James Reynold's Sacrifice Records, in 1986. After the album's release, Michael Shockley replaced Jio on drums. The next recording with Bisi was the 1987 EP Hotel California, released on James Reynolds' Safe House Records. It featured an eight-minute cover of the title song by the Eagles, a wry deconstruction and a salute to their roots by the Nahem brothers, who grew up in the Bay Area. It also included Ritual Tension's signature song, "The Grind". The EP and the debut were also reissued together by Sacrifice as I Live Here/Hotel California. As the band gained popularity in the East Village scene, playing clubs like Cat Club, The Ritz, Pyramid Club, The Bottom Line, and Knitting Factory, their true home became CBGB, where they had come to the attention of CBGB owner Hilly Kristal, leading to headliner slots and a live "Off the Board" album recorded in 1986 at the club entitled The Blood of the Kid and released in 1987 by CBGB/Celluloid Records. Expelled was the final studio album of this period, again recorded with Bisi and released in 1989 by Safe House. The group disbanded in 1990, but played a final reunion performance in Hoboken, New Jersey in May 1993. Past Tense, a 15-track collection of Ritual Tension material, was issued on Sacrifice in 1999. In 2016, Ivan and Andrew Nahem began working at the studio of Michael Jung's Hizhaus Recording, remixing their early song "All Wound Up", as well as rediscovered tapes of the Noise New York recordings by Carnival Crash, which would become the Carnival Crash release It Is a Happy Man on James Reynold's Obelisk Records in 2020. In 2017, Ivan Nahem began working on a project with Pittsburgh Noise music artist Gregg Bielski that came to be called ex->tension. Bielski initially asked Nahem to put spoken word vocals to his soundtracks, and eventually the latter's Ritual Tension bandmates were enlisted for separate collaborations, with Andrew Nahem's guitar on three tracks and Sloan and Shockley contributing to one track each. The resulting album, The Kiss, by ex->tension, was released on RORER 714 Records (and subsequently re-issued in Japan by the Meditation label of Ichiro Tsuji of the band Dissecting Table). This was followed by performances by Ivan Nahem and Gregg Bielski with other members of Ritual Tension, which in turn led to a reformation of Ritual Tension in 2017, without guitarist Andrew Nahem. They played their first reunion date at Century in Philadelphia on February 23, 2018. This was followed by a show at SideWalk Cafe in New York City on March 15, 2018. The band came together again and played shows in 2018 and '19 in New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Marc Sloan expanded his role to an overall more bass heavy approach. They began recording in Rehobeth Beach, DE at Cubano Enfuego Studios, and then moved to Deepsea Studio in Hoboken, to work with friend and engineer Mark C. Emilio Zef China, who played with Peter Murphy, played violin and guitar on two tracks. The album It's Just the Apocalypse, It's Not the End was released on July 28, 2020 on Arguably Records. The album included seven original songs and two covers: "Manic Depression" by Jimi Hendrix and "Shakin' Street" by the MC5. A record release event was scuttled due to the pandemic. On August 19, 2023 Ivan (vocals, percussion) and Marc (bass, vocals) played Ritual Tension songs at the End of Summer Event at the International Fusion Museum in Easton, PA. Ritual Tension, consisting of Ivan, Marc and Michael, played at the Downtown Music Gallery in Manhattan on October 3, 2023. Ritual Tension's releases were critically acclaimed, mostly in fanzines but also in more mainstream press. "Impossible to categorize, oblivious to convention, at points it approaches being a rock record, although from a hitherto unexplored direction... probably the best rhythm [section] in New York City. Ritual Tension is a thing best experienced live. You ain't heard like this. But you'll be glad when you have." - Away From the Pulsebeat "This is music at the end of its tether, trapped, dangerous. They shout of New York lowlife, but it's not the lovable bozos of Tom Waits. They're on a long leash but holding it themselves. Ritual Tension are people you genuinely would not want to meet down any dark alley. You even feel uneasy with them on your turntable. Magnificent." - Melody Maker "The tension wires of sound and imagery both geared wholly to a critique of modern ways, at times recall PiL's more virulent work, but really Ritual Tension are answerable only to themselves, not to history." - Sounds "'Here' is the Lower East Side, and they're talking to (or yelling at) you, Person Who Doesn't Live on the Lower East Side. Surprisingly, this parochial approach is good for music a lot more intense and universal than, to choose the relevant example, the Bush Tetras' 'Too Many Creeps'." - Robert Chrisgau in The Village Voice "...the new albums from Live Skull, Sonic Youth, Ut, rat at rat r and Ritual Tension reflect shared attitudes and roots... All these bands have a rising energy about them, suggesting that they haven't begun to peak. Following their development is going to her a pleasure... [Ritual Tension's] rhythm section is fluid but packs a punch, and Andrew Nahem's guitar work is distinctive and full of energy." - Robert Palmer in The New York Times "Ritual Tension is a